Sign Up for the Good Stuff

Problems and Solutions to Speeding Tickets

We’ve all been there. You see a black and white car, that good ‘ole Crown Victoria with the lights on top, driving behind you. Your heart picks up, your brake pedal depresses and you ask yourself, “What did I do? Did I break a law?” or, “I hope I’m not getting pulled over for that!” In that instance, fairness becomes a very important word, and you hope the guy with the badge cuts you some slack.

None of us like money or freedoms taken from us. A fee at the bank, a late movie rental fee, or a ticket for improperly using our blinker, could all put a twinge of anger in our heart. But we all recognize the need for fees. When a guy swerves in our lane without blinking and we slam on our brakes to miss his truck’s big chrome bumpers, how often do we wish there was a cop around? We want justice. “I hope you get a ticket!!!” we yell.

We have a problem. There’s a lack of justice going on in the area of traffic tickets and I’d like to propose a solution. The problem is police aren’t in a position to give proper traffic tickets. Before you get angry or call me a cop hater, give me a chance to prove my point. To propose a change in the system doesn’t mean you hate people. I love cops and speeders. This could be applied to many more areas but for the sake of length I’ll keep it to simple traffic violations.

At worst, police are unjust, at best, they’re uninformed. In a small town near you there’s a cop just waiting to give you a ticket. Why? Because when he gives you a ticket, he looks good to his superiors, elected officials, and brings his town more money. This cop frequently lets the locals slip by without tickets because it’s Joe down the street, and they drink together on Fridays. This is not justice. And it happens all the time. When another cop pulls over an attractive 5’8” 120 pound blonde, you think he’s going to have any reason to let her off versus someone less attractive? This is called conflict of interest. When a traffic camera is installed, takes your picture and sends you a bill weeks later, do you think it’s merely for safety? I would argue no. If a police officer is having a bad day and you get a bigger ticket. Fair? No.

Now what if an wise officer wants to give you the perfect ticket to fit your crime. How would he do that? What is the perfect punishment? What will deter recklessness without going overboard? The fact is, all he can do is guess what’s fair or charge what the legislators or superiors hand down as fair. How do they know that going 10mph over the speed limit is $180 worth of danger to society versus $1,800?

My solution: When a police officer pulls you over for a traffic violation like speeding or swerving, he writes a report of the scene (time, lighting, other cars around etc.), gives you a copy, gives you a copy any video/audio evidence, THEN submits all of this to your insurance agency! Done. Voilà! Justice.

Why is this the solution? Insurance companies have a financial interest in giving you the perfectly just ticket. If they increase your rate too much what happens? You go to another company, of course. If they charge you too little what happens? They go out of business for not charging customers enough for the amount of risk that their customers pose to life and property of others. You would be able to clarify and debate your case and they would have a vested interest in listening.

Insurance companies NEED to be absolutely accurate in order to stay in business. The absolute best companies at doing this make the most money. Legislators and law enforcers do not have this concrete incentive. If a cop/legislators charges you too much, what happens? You pay too much. You are unjustly punished. If a cop/legislators charge you too little what happens? You pose a risk to society too great that is not accurately accounted for.

This is [nearly] pure, free-market innovation hard at work.

Benefits:

People committing traffic violations won’t be unjustly raked over the coals.

Society will have less biased and more skilled institutions assessing risk and giving appropriate fees.

More people would go to safe driving classes and other innovations to driving cost down for all of society. Insurers have a financial incentive of paying for less crashes by innovating.

This would essentially nullify bad laws. If you’re driving 3 over on a clear day, when no one is around, you might be charged nothing or very little due to the minute increase in danger.

Bad drivers, rather than taxpayers, would be on the hook for bad driving. Insurance companies would charge more to bad drivers to make up for increased cost. Judges, court reporters, court buildings, paperwork etc. could all be scaled down, saving us all money.

Police could focus on more important crimes where life and property were actually damaged.

People would respect the police more due to them handing down less punishments, just passing on truth. Less stress for cops is good.

I see the ultimate solution being private security companies being hired by road owners and insurance companies to manage the rules of the road. Every property owner should be able to make the rules. And with different property owners comes more competition and better policing. See here and here how we could privatize the roads and highways.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you -Jesus

Jesus cares about the poor, widows, the lost, sinners… and everyone else We believe in a God who stepped down to show us how to be merciful and just. We should even care about speeding tickets.